A couple of days after this past Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised by a visit from my friend Mark who is attending art school in New York City.

That has very little to do with the point of this column.

While we were at dinner at one of Bowling Green's fine restaurants, I described to him plans a group of our mutual friends were making for New Year's Eve ... a surprise going-away party for a buddy heading into the Air Force.

That, too, has very little to do with the ultimate theme of this article.

What actually did inspire this particular blind stab at journalism was Mark's cheerful description of our plans: "Wow, that's cool as hell!"

Now, if you'll pardon the redundancy, what the hell does that mean?

Everybody seems to have pet peeves about the English language; there are the obvious annoyances like overuse of "y'know," and "like," and more obscure aggravations such as those people who insist on modifying the word "unique" (which is linquistically impossible).

My own current peeve involves phrases containing the word "hell," and believe me, that has nothing to do with any religious beliefs I may or may not hold.

What, precisely, can it mean to call something "cool as hell"? Not only is the phrase inherently an oxymoron, but it also seems that in its most real sense, the comment should be taken as an insult.

Whether or not you share John Milton's "Paradise Lost" vision of Hell, I would not even care to have any of my activities associated with the literary metaphor.

There are so many phrases related to this one, either tangentially or directly; obvious as hell, direct as hell, and one a co-worker actually uses quite often: "I'm glad as hell." I'm sorry to hear that!

Yeah, I'm "sorry as hell." The list is endless.

What we basically seem to be facing is a phenomenon far too common in our English language: the corruptive use of a word to the point that it no longer retains its original meaning.

The most-cited case of this happening is the sad degeneration of the simple word, "gay," once a positive adjective, now often used in a pejorative (or at least political) sense.

Oddly, the degeneration of the word "hell" seems to be taking quite an opposite direction. What was once the most vile of curses, the most dreaded of metaphors, is slowly but surely turning into a meaningless interjection used to fill space, much like the aforementioned "like" and "y'know."

So tell me to go to hell (enough people already have), and I can laugh at the allusion; describe for the the mythological hellhounds, and Cerberus forbid I should be bothered; threaten me with hellfire and brimstone, and I can ignore your tired old cliche.

But then, everyone relies on what we migh call her own personal cache of cliches' I have numerous favorites of my own. And if you ever catch me using one, feel free to warn me to stop using it.

Rest assured, my response will be a hearty "Like hell I will!"